Cross Country Beats RPI, WPI To Take Fourth Engineers' Cup

By David KelmanTeam Member

The men's cross country team flew by the competition Saturday to
continue their dominance of the annual Engineers' Cup, winning the event
and taking home the accompanying trophy for the fourth straight year. The
five mile race was held at Franklin Park.

The Engineers, off to a 2-0 start, are currently ranked ninth in the
nation for NCAA Division III.

The team swept RPI and WPI with a score of 15 points, meaning that MIT's
top five runners captured the first five places in the race. RPI scored 52
points for second place while WPI was relatively close behind with a score
of 65 points. Team captain and All-American runner Ethan A. Crain '96 led
the Engineers to victory with a first place individual finish. Crain was
clocked with a time of 25:38 for the race, his personal best for the
course. Following close behind Crain was Arnold H. Seto '96. Next came
freshman sensations Michael A. Parkins '99 and James W. Berry '99, while
Joshua D. Feldman '97 sealed the five-man sweep. Two more freshman stars,
Matthew B. Debski '99 and Leif Seed '99, rounded out MIT's lethal top
seven.

The junior varsity team also won with ease over both RPI and WPI. The
team was lead by Richard C. Rosalez '98, with a time of 27:21. Rosalez was
followed in turn by Sohail N. Husain '98 and Chris H. Schell '96. Gerardo
Corona '97 and Omar A. Saleh '97 came in next, while Chuck Van Buren '98
and David Kelman '99 finished seconds apart to round out the top seven.

While MIT captured the Engineers' Cup with relative ease, Coach Halston
W. Taylor stressed that more serious tests lie on the horizon. Next week,
the team runs against New England schools Tufts, Bentley, and Bates.
Additionally, one of the Engineers' most important benchmarks will come
October 7th at the LeMoyne Invitational in Syracuse against such teams as
number-one ranked Williams.

Taylor said that while the team's level of concentration has improved as
a whole, it is imperative that runners work in groups as the season
progresses.